Solitaire game.



UNITED STATES Vl?n'rnm OFFICE.

LA RUE PECK, OF BUFFALO, NF.T YORK.

SOLITAIRE GAM E.

SPECIFICATION forming peut er Letters Patent No. 631,050, dated August 15, 1899.

Application filed April 22, 1899.

To ULZZ whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, LA RUE PECK, a citizen ofthe United States, residing at Buffalo, in the county of Erie and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Solitaire Games, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to games, and more particularly to games of the solitaire class.

My invention consists of a game board which may con sist of a board with concavities for the reception of marbles, as shown in the drawing herewith, or which may be of a checker-board construction. For brevity of description I shall refer to a board having concavities and employing marbles, it being evident that a checker-board and checkers may be used in like manner.

Referring to the drawing herewith, consisting of one sheet and one figure, A, B, and O constitute the three subdivisions of the gameboard proper. These three divisions maybe characterized as the start, the field, and the home In the drawing I have shown the start and the home (which should in every instance contain the same number of concavities or squares) as containing places for twelve marbles. The lield I have indicated as having concavities equal to the sum of the start and the home. This is a preferable construction; but so long as the start and the home contain the same number of positions the number may be varied, and the number of positions in the eld may also be varied in like manner.

a a indicate the concavities, which, it will be understood, exist beneath the marbles in the start position at A.

Z) h are the marbles, which fit into the concavities first in the start and afterward in the various concavities as they are moved.

The point of the game is to transfer by jumping all of the marbles from the start position at A through the medium of the field B into the concavities of the home C.

The concavities in the start A are numbered upon the board consecutively from one upward, and the remaining concavities are irregularly numbered. The marbles have numbers corresponding to those of the start A and are placed iu the concavities having Serial No. 714,096, (No model.)

corresponding numbers, as indicated in the drawing.

The procedure of the game is as follows: The moves are exclusively by jumping and may be made in any direction available. The jumping may be either forward or backward to any point which at the time of the jump is available, it being understood, of course, that two different marbles cannot occupy the same position at the same time. The method of performing the jump is a mathematical procedure which in every instance involves three factors-the number upon the marble, which may be termed the jumper, and the number upon the marble which is jumped over, which may be termed the jumped, and the number of the hole or square occupied by the jumped marble. These three numbers must always be used, and they may be combined by addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division or utilized by any two of these processes. In every instance the jumper goes into a concavity adjacent to the jumped, and the jumped marble goes into the concavity having a number identical with the result of the arithmetical process employed. For example, if marble No. lis jumped over marble No. 7, by addition we have one plus seven plus seven equals fifteen. Marble No. l of course goes to place No. 13, adjacent to marble No. 7, and marble N o. 7 goes to the position indicated by the sum of the factors-viz., position No. l-which is in the last row of home. Whatever the mathematical combination, the move is made by this rule.

It is at once evident that the game possesses infinite variations and complexities diicult of solution. The game-board, as indicated in the drawing, with the numbers appended, is capable of being so played as to solve the problems.

It is not material to the game that the exact number of marbles or numbers indicated should be used, so long as the numbers are such as to make it a mathematical possibility to solve the game.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim isl. A solitaire game-board having numbered positions on its surface, said surface being separated into three general divisions coln- IOO prising a start, a field, and a home division, game-pieces of equal number to, and numbered identically With the positions in the start division, and adapted to be moved across said board, substantially as described.

2. Asolitaire game-board having numbered positions on its surface, said surface being separated into three general divisions comprising a start, a field, and a home division, game-pieces equal in number and numbered identically with the positions in the start division5 the positions in the eld and home divisions being arbitrarily numbered, and said game-pieces adapted tobe moved across said board from the start, through the field, to I5 the home in accordance with combinations formed between the piece and division numA bers, substantially as described.

In Witness whereof I `have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two witnesses. 'n LA RUE PECK.

Vitnesses:

MYRA- E. SNYDER, H. E. ROURKE. 

